Sixty suspected Taliban and five members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a major new clash in southern Afghanistan, a top Afghan army commander and police said.

The fighting, the latest in a dramatic upsurge of violence in Afghanistan that has left around 350 people dead, erupted Tuesday after an Afghan army patrol came under attack in volatile Uruzgan province.

"We launched a massive search and clean-up operation after the attack in which our troops spotted and killed 60 Taliban," said General Rahmatullah Raufi, who commands Afghan forces in the south.

Four soldiers were killed, he said. A policeman also died in the attack, the ministry of interior said on Wednesday.

Three soldiers and three police were also wounded in the fighting near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, Raufi said.

Uruzgan sees regular clashes between security forces and militants loyal to the ultra-Islamist Taliban regime that was overthrown by a coalition led by the United States in late 2001.